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Despite no official announcement from the UFC of the event, a bout between Josh Neer (24-7-1 MMA, 3-4 UFC) and Mac Danzig (18-5-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) has been added to UFC Fight Night 17.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) first learned of the bout from sources close to Neer, and Danzig announced the bout yesterday on his MySpace page.

http://sports.ign.com/articles/931/931594p1.html
Kenflo and Stevenson are confirmed for the game. Not big news but there are pictures, and at the IGN site there are video interviews with fighters about their thoughts on the game.

It seems that Melvin Manhoef's "retirement" was merely a break to recharge after losing to Gegard Mousasi in the DREAM MWGP. After just 2 months Manhoef will return to action, but not MMA yet-he has a kickboxing fight coming up at a K-1 event next month then another one in February.

One time UFC light-heavyweight contender Renato "Babalu" Sobral is undoubtedly one of the top 205-pound fighters outside of the world's largest promotion.
After a TKO win over former champ Bobby Southworth at Friday's "Strikeforce: Destruction" earned the Brazilian the Strikeforce title, Sobral credited sacrifice for his win.
"People just see on the stage, or watching TV, they see good fighters beating up on each other," Sobral said at the event's post-fight press conference. "They don't realize it comes from hard training.

It’s more than likely not a showdown with Nick Diaz or a rematch against Joachim Hansen … but it’s something.
Former Elite XC fighter and 2008 DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix show stealer, Eddie Alvarez (15-1), will make his return to competition at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, N.J., on January 23 under the Extreme Challenge banner.
An opponent for the Philadelphia native has not been announced at this time.
Here’s a snip from Alvarez discussing the fight during a recent interview with iGuillotine.com:

Victory was a long time coming for Kim Couture, and all the more sweet when it arrived at Strikeforce “Destruction.”
In her second professional fight, Couture steamrolled opponent Lina Kvokov, chasing her around the cage with punches and knees. Kvokov seemed to want out from the beginning.
For Couture, who’d sustained a broken jaw in the first strike of her pro career five months ago, Kvokov’s actions didn’t compute.
“I wanted her to come after me,” Couture told reporters after the fight. “It was part of my game plan, so it threw me off a little bit.”

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight titleholder Georges "Rush" St. Pierre won a split decision over B.J. Penn at UFC 58 on March 4, 2006 in a non-title fight. The rematch is set for Jan. 31 and St. Pierre wants to solidify his name as a legend in the sport of mixed martial arts with another win over Penn.
Both are current UFC champions ranked No.1 in their weight classes. Each are considered amongst the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world. They're in their primes. This is a mega-fight.
"He's the guy that I want to fight. He's my best challenge right now, and he's the guy that I want to fight," St. Pierre told MMAWeekly.com recently. "I have to fight guys like B.J. to make myself a legend in this sport.
"When you're a world champion you have to set your goal even higher. I don't want to fight to be champion anymore because I'm already champion.

This past Saturday Ricardo promoted many of his students under the watchful eye of his teacher Renzo Gracie and 30 other very special guest Black Belts in attendance.
New Ricardo Almeida Black Belts:
Tom DeBlass
Dante Rivera
Drew Puzon
Bob Dashnow
Kyio Morie
Emily Kwok
John DiBianco
Congratulations!
Congratulations also to the other graduates, including Frank Edgar and Chris Liguori who received their Purple Belts.

Although UFC never put out any sort of press release or announcement regarding Fabricio Werdum's release from UFC after his loss to Junior dos Santos, Werdum has now confirmed through the TATAME website that he has been officially released. Werdum claims UFC wanted to cut his pay in half on a new contract, but will now head elsewhere-possibly Affliction or even Japan.

And in the latest round of trash talk between the eternal rivals, Alistair Overeem again is calling out Mirko Cro Cop ahead of their planned New Years' Eve rematch in Japan. Overeem claims Cro Cop hasn't yet signed on for the rematch despite CC issuing the chellenge for it, but Overeem says he won't use knee strikes to the body so CC can't "wimp out again".

Thanksgiving: the holiday best celebrated by abusing your arteries and securing central obesity’s graduation from “health concern” to “full-blown epidemic.”
In between trips to the apple pie trough, you might feel compelled to mumble some gratitude toward family, friends or -- may God forgive these words -- the fight promoters.
Mindful that excessive carbohydrate consumption might render your brain as useful as a bowl of congealed Quaker oatmeal, here’s a handy holiday reminder of things any MMA fan should be grateful for.

The fight between TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah and Nick Catone, originally scheduled for UFC 91 but cancelled due to Sadollah being hospitalized due to a leg infection, has been rescheduled for a planned UFN on February 7. UFC has not yet announced the event, expected to be held at The Palms in Las Vegas.

Add Strikeforce to the growing list of organizations that is interested in Gina Carano's services.
Actually, we should say Strikeforce is "interested again" in the undefeated fighter's services.
After all, it was Strikeforce that first took a gamble on an unproven Carano and put her on a major card before it was a popular thing to do.

UFC lightweight competitor Jeremy Stephens (14-3) threw a devastating uppercut in the second round of his lightweight battle at UFC 91: "Couture vs Lesnar" that not only sent opponent Rafael Dos Anjos crashing to the floor, but also brought the fans in attendance and at home straight out of their seats.
It was a jaw-dropping ending to a fight that Stephens admits wasn’t exactly heading in the direction he was hoping for when things first got underway.
"He took me down. I really wasn’t expecting for him to take me down. He’s really strong. I was trying to get back up, but he had really, really tight jiu-jitsu. I couldn’t move. I’ve been working on getting up but he left no spaces. He did a good job holding me down. Once I was able to reverse, I made a mistake and he capitalized on it. But you know I’m not going to tap. I’ve got too much heart, too much on the line."

There’s a solid lightweight match up looming between Mac Danzig (18-5-1) and Josh Neer (24-7-1) at UFC Fight Night 17 at a yet to be determined venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 7.
It’s a 155-pound tilt that will make the televised Spike TV broadcast on fight night, according to a recent message from Danzig on his MySpace.com page.
Danzig — season six welterweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) — is coming off a frustrating unanimous decision loss to Clay Guida at UFC Fight Night 15 back in September. “The Carpenter’s” relentless cardio and wrestling proved to be just to much for Danzig to overcome.
Prior to the loss he submitted Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Mark Bocek with a rear naked choke at UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2? in April. He stopped Tommy Speer in similar fashion before that to earn the TUF crown nearly one year ago.

ANDERSON SILVA will top the bill at UFC 95 in London, SunSport understands.
But the 33-year-old Muay Thai master will NOT face light heavyweight superstar Chuck Liddell.
Instead, we can reveal matchmaker Joe Silva is considering offering the Brazilian a fight with the loser of one of the two big light heavyweight clashes taking place at UFC 92 on December 27.

EliteXC-contracted heavyweight Dave Herman is not allowing ProElite’s recent demise to keep him idle. Competing on Saturday night for the Austin-based “King of Kombat” promotion, Herman headlined the show in a bout against former IFO heavyweight champion Chris Guillen.
Guillen, who reportedly was originally set to face former UFC veteran Sam Hoger, was TKO’d by Herman just one minute and 32 seconds into the face after the referee called a stop to the fight while Herman was delivering unanswered strikes.
The win improved Herman’s record to 13-0 with twelve of his victories coming by the way of finishes in the first round. After feasting on unproven competition in the Midwest, Herman taken a step up in competition in 2008 and is primed for a big campaign in 2009.